The Lexicon of Fuzz

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Over the last month I've been digging through various newspaper and magazine archives looking for anything pedal-related. (I know, I'm a huge nerd :) And something I started to notice was how rapidly the earliest references to "fuzzy" guitar tones evolved, and to much of the same terminology we use today. 

So I thought it might be cool to map out this evolution, and explore the lexicon of fuzz...

While the word "fuzz" had been used since the dawn of radio to describe a poor or noisy signal,  and later to describe a faulty or overdriven amplifier, it doesn't seem to have been widely applied to an intentional guitar tone until 1961, with the now legendary release of Marty Robins' Don't Worry from January of that year. 

Shortly after, the earliest gear nerds were already asking "HOW did he get that sound!?" And the article above, from January 22nd 1961, gives a really cool snap-shot into this world; describing the exciting (and confusing) "new sound" that guitarist Grady Martin used for the track.

Additionally, mentioned towards the end of the blurb, was that Martin had just released a brand new instrumental track of his own called The Fuzz, that he apparently made after realizing this very unique and "new sound" could disappear at any moment.

Well we all know the story from here, but it wasn't until the spring of 1962 that Gibson would release the Maestro FZ-1 Fuzz Tone; with the earliest reference I could find being an ad from the April 13th edition of the Tampa Tribune. 

And from this point through to 1964, all fuzzes were simply called "Fuzz-Tones". Which makes sense, because in that time there doesn't seem to be any other commercially available fuzz pedals on the market. And obviously from here on out, we can assume that all the true dates are actually a few months earlier than their appearances in print, but it's still cool to see.

That brings us to the next reference of note, from the December 1964 issue of Beat Instrumental. It's quick and simple but shows that by this time some hipsters in the scene had already adopted the more generic "fuzz box" (which implies that some non-Maestro fuzzes were available by then).

The usage of "fuzz box" finally became official in the September 1965 issue of Beat Instrumental, where they conducted a give-away contest for six MKI Tone Benders.

Not only do we see "fuzz box" printed a whopping 7 times throughout the pages, but it also makes its first appearance on the cover of a major magazine!

*one more term of note from this issue of BI, is the use of "fuzz unit"; Which had also been seen a month prior, in the classifieds section of the Duluth News Tribune from August 24th, where the seller listed his "Gibson electric fuzz unit" for sale.

From here we continue with the October issue of Beat Instrumental, where we find discussion of the 1965 BMII trade show; Watkins brought out their Pep Box, and more importantly (in the context of this article) Vox introduced their new Distortion Booster. Which as far as I can tell, is the first time we see the term "distortion" used to describe a pedal (or plugin) itself.

So by the end of 1965 there were enough non-Maestro fuzz pedals that the use of "fuzz box" had become the go-to designation. And enough so, that even down in Australia we saw it used in print.

Here is an ad from the December 23rd 1965 edition of the Sydney Morning Herald for Fi-Sonic amplifiers and their own "fuzz box", the Fuzz Blender.

"Fuzz box" would reign supreme for the next couple of years, but a full-on fuzz explosion was about to happen, flooding the market and again changing the vocabulary.

In the January 30th edition of the Springfield News Sun we find a small blurb that describes a theft of musical equipment, including a "distortion box". And while this term didn't seem to catch on, it can be found again just two months later in an ad for the "Pro-Fuzz Distortion Box".

In March of 1967 we get our first use of the word "buzz" in an Oregon Daily Journal article about the amp brand Sunn, in reference to their new fuzz plugin, the Sunn Buzz. 

Just a month later the term "Buzz Tone" is found in the classifieds section of The Gazette. It's unclear if this was the name of the pedal itself, or a generic term used for a random fuzz. But we do know that the Kimberly Fuzz Box was released in 1966 and at some point changed over to the Kimberly Buzz Box and Volume Expander. But as of now we don't know the exact date.

And finally, four months later, the Canadian amp brand Verlage placed an ad for their Buzz-A-Tone in The Brandon Sun.

Interestingly enough, we don't actually see the use of the word "pedal" when it comes to fuzz effects until 1968! And even more odd, we see it as "distortion pedal" first.

The below classified ad is from the September 9th edition of the Vancouver Sun, that shows what has to be a Vox Tone Bender for sale.

And the following month in the pages of The Charlotte Observer, we again find an ad for what is possibly the Vox Tone Bender, but this time it's referred to as a "fuzz pedal".

Something else to note about this one, is that it was very common in the late 60s to offer a "Free Fuzz Pedal" with the purchase of an amplifier or guitar. I must have run into 40+ promotions just like this from 1967-1970 alone.

Once we hit 1969, "fuzz tone", "fuzz box", "fuzz pedal", and "buzz tone" were all being used interchangeably. And by the beginning of the next decade "distortion pedal" would make its way to the top.

The journey "Fuzz" has taken in such a relatively short period of time can be found throughout the history of linguistics, especially when it comes to a major invention. And just like "airplane" was the term used since its inception, "fuzz" no doubt hit the nail on the head from Day 1.

*and a final note; as was stated earlier, the dates on these references do not necessarily correspond to either the exact dates or the exact order that the terms were created. But I thought it was important enough to document, and hopefully you got something out of this one.

thanks for reading,

-ed 

Verlage Buzz-A-Tone (Canada's First Fuzz?)

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This past Summer I was probably spending too much time going through old magazine archives and looking for anything pedal-related. My main years of focus where 1962-1972, as the later half of that decade saw the birth of guitar pedals, and specifically FUZZ, as we know it today.

And as it turns out, I was very lucky in tracking down some really important ads and articles that have helped clear up much of the history we all thought we knew for the past couple decades. Additionally, I was able to discover some pedals that were completely new (to me), which then lead to even more digging and late-night research.

The article below, which was found in the June 1969 edition of The Music Trades magazine, highlights a "new" fuzz out of Saskatchewan, Canada called the "Buzz-A-Tone". As you can imagine, I immediately had to find out everything I could about this thing, and see if I could track one down for myself (spoiler alert: I didn't). So here we go! This is everything I have found, so far, about the Verlage Buzz-A-Tone fuzz...

Verlage was an amp brand out of Humboldt, Saskatchewan, owned and operated by Ken Verlage. From what I could find, it looks like they were around for nearly a decade; from approximately 1965-1975 (give or take a few years).

The amps are somewhat rare, but I have been able to find photos of enough of them that seem to prove, if nothing else, how long they were actually in business.  

I did find one description of an early amp head that supposedly has the Buzz-A-Tone circuit built-in, but the controls don't really match up, so I cannot confirm if this is true. 

So after a bit of onlining, I was able to find photos of two (somewhat) surviving units. Sadly, both have been modded; one has a weird 2nd footswitch installed, the output cable is missing, and I'm not sure what else could be wrong but it doesn't seem quite right. The other one has been completely gutted! At some point along its path, someone decided they hated fuzz and took out their anger and ignorance on an innocent vintage pedal just trying to live its life.

But that all being said, we at least have a couple photos to share so you can get an idea of what these looked like. And you may recognize that they appear a bit different than the one in that article above. 

*About that; one thing I caught at the end was the line,  "A special lead guitar model is also available."  So are we seeing both models here? I'm honestly not sure at all, but maybe YOU have one just sitting in your closet and would like to message me so we can figure this out??? 😁

Now that article being from 1969 should be an indication of when these were available. But something I have learned from reading The Music Trades, is that when gear makes it into an issue, it's because they are working with a distributor. And oftentimes a new brand will be toiling away for a year or two (sometimes more) before deciding they need a little help to expand.

So it begs the question, "When did the Verlage Buzz-A-Tone actually get released?"

And maybe we never would have gotten closer to that answer, but just earlier today I was going through old newspaper archives and came across an ad from the Brandon Sun, out of Manitoba, Canada, from August of 1967; it was for Verlage Amplifiers, and right there about half-way down, was a clear mention of the Buzz-A-Tone! (well "Buzz Tone", which might actually make sense. Look back at that 1969 article and the face of that pedal appears to have the word "Verlage" above the footswitch, and then simply "Buzz Tone" below it. 🤔)

Now I don't personally know much about the pedal history of Canada. But I can't think of a single Canadian fuzz that came out before 1967. So could this be the very first (production) fuzz box from our neighbors to the north???

And if it was built in 1967 or earlier, what could the circuit be based off of? Unfortunately we have no gut shots to study, but it could easily be a Maestro Fuzz-Tone or even a Mosrite Fuzz-Rite. But to be honest, we will have no idea until we actually see inside one.

And just to be thorough, I should mention that one of the owners has described the tone as sounding "like a Fuzz-Rite", but again, who knows!?

Well, that's all I got for this one! If it wasn't clear above, I will ask you all now; if you have any more information on the history of Verlage Amps or Ken Verlage, please reach out.

If you own a Verlage Buzz-A-Tone definitely reach out! If nothing else I would love to see the inside of one so we can come back and edit this with more details and accuracy. Here is

my Email and Instagram please feel free to reach out with any additional bit of info you might have.

*And if you'd like a little more background on the amplifier side of Verlage, check out this link.

Thanks as always,

-ed